JOURNAL

Gadgets and other rucksack essentials for a trip around the world

It’s time for an adventure! My boyfriend and I are currently busy organising and planning because we’ll be setting off on a six-month round-the-world trip! We’ve been putting a lot of thought into what we need to pack because we’ll only be travelling with one rucksack each. So that means we’ll have to be ruthless and not take up any space with unnecessary odds and ends. We had a look around Bikini Berlin to browse the travel essentials we need in addition to the usual items such as swimwear, travel towel etc. Here are our top recommendations:

We’re also going to be travelling to some colder areas, places where it will be winter when we’re there, such as Nepal and Japan. A warm coat that doesn’t take up too much room is therefore essential. I opted for the Thermoball™ jacket from The North Face because it offers a synthetic alternative to down insulation but keeps you really warm, and can also be stowed away in the built-in pocket, meaning that it’s ultra-light and really small. Another plus: it even keeps you warm when it’s wet.

Another cosy alternative is the Mammut Kira Women’s Tour Jacket, made of soft knitted fleece brushed on the inside and printed on the outside – perfect for mountain hiking and trekking in Nepal!

Something I hadn’t even thought about is a secure wallet with RFID protection. This prevents unauthorised access to your credit and bank card data (which is meanwhile possible without anyone even touching or looking at your cards), all thanks to a little innovative aluminium case. This small helper by Secrid protects my credit cards from data theft and fraudulent use. Spotted at the Promobo pop-up box.

Perhaps it’s a blogger thing but, but I’m sure all you camera enthusiasts out there are exactly the same: we always take far too many photos when we’re travelling! To make sure they don’t slow down (or, heaven forbid, crash!) our laptop and before we save them in the cloud, we invested in a high-performance, portable hard drive from Cyberport. Two terabytes might seem a lot, but we want to make sure we have enough space for videos and RAW format files too. And to ensure our gadgets don’t run out of battery while we’re enthusiastically snapping away, we’re also packing a power bank that can charge up to three mobile devices at the same time via a USB port.

I’ve also got my eye on a foldable rucksack from The North Face, as well as a GoPro, which I spotted at Cyberport.